236 



LATITUDE AT NOON. 



Museum. We found ourselves in S. lat. T &>\ 

 and supposed the village we had seen to be five 

 miles farther north, in a straight line. We were 

 now about ten miles in a direct line from the low 

 point for which we steered when leaving the ship, 

 so that we had penetrated about fifteen miles into 

 the country. During the afternoon we pulled down 

 to the first group of huts we had met, and then beat, 

 out to the mouth of the opening. The channel here 

 was a mile or a mile and a half wide, the water 

 slightly brackish. Several channels, equally wide, 

 and seemingly equally deep, ran as far as we could 

 see towards the east and north east, cutting up the 

 land into numerous islets, and apparently commu- 

 nicating again with the sea towards the east. 



We anchored for the night with the open sea in 

 view, but sheltered by a long low island of jungle 

 on our left, and on our right by the long sand-bank 

 that had impeded our entrance into this channel as 

 we approached it from the sea. 



May 14, — A dark rainy morning. We pulled 

 out to the southward, keeping pretty close to the 

 shore on our left, where we had plenty of water. 

 Just at the point of this shore we found an old hut 

 or two, which we took possession of in order to cook 

 our breakfast, as it rained heavily. 



About nine o'clock it cleared off a little, and we 

 pulled out to the southward for about three miles, 

 leaving the extremity of the shoal point about half 

 a mile on our right hand, and having a long line of 



